Redmond (WA) - A deal struck by Microsoft and Universal Music Group gives the popular record label a cut of the sales of Microsoft's anticipated Zune media device, in a move that is possibly more about potential legal action than it is a good faith partnership.
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Sources at Taiwan optical disc makers makers indicated demand has been warming up for DVD+R/-R DL (single-sided double-layer) discs recently, following the increased availability of a modding hack that allows for the playing of pirated games on Xbox 360 consoles.

Gigabyte Technology announced that it will transfer its existing own-brand desktop PC motherboard and graphics cards business, valued at $124 million, to Gigabyte United Incorporated, a joint venture it will establish with Asustek Computer in January of 2007.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) today held a meeting of its board of directors, which approved capital appropriation of $1.133 billion to expand 65 and 90 nanometer process capacity in 300 mm wafer fabs, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE).

New York (NY) - In yet another bid to draw attention to itself before the release of the more closely watched PS3 and Wii consoles, Microsoft today announced the latest shipment forecasts for its Xbox 360 system, which is expected to get a bump in sales during the holiday shopping season.

Sunnyvale (CA) - Threatened by a potential shutdown of its Blackberry network, Research in Motion settled a patent infringement lawsuit filed by NTP with a $612.5 million payment earlier this year. Now, Palm fins itself in hot waters with NTP as well: However, the company declines to pay for patents that the company considers "doubtful."

Sony NEC Optiarc, a joint venture between Sony (55% stake) and NEC (45% stake), has begun shipments of optical disc drives (ODDs) for use in IT products and game consoles as well as audio/video optical disc devices, and expects to become the world's largest supplier for such products by the end of 2007, according to the Kyotaro Imamura, general manager of the Computer Peripherals & Optical Media Devices Division of Sony Taiwan.

Samsung Electronics and Sony may invest in a second eighth-generation (8G) TFT LCD facility if demand rises further, according to a November 5 report from Dow Jones citing Sang Wan Lee, chief executive of Samsung's LCD business.

Transitive Corporation is trying to ease the pain of converting legacy Solaris applications to Linux with its new QuickTransit software application. QuickTransit converts Solaris/SPARC applications into Linux x86 binary code on the fly and promises to work at about 80% native speed.

Microsoft's announcement of a peace deal with Novell Inc was a massive endorsement of Linux and open source, but the fine print means that the deal might not be good news for those not running Microsoft's approved version of Linux.

IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture between Intel and Micron, today announced that it will break ground on a fourth flash manufacturing facility in the first half of next year. The factory will initially focus on producing 50 nm flash memory chips from 300 mm wafers.

According to report published by the Associated Press, Google has plans to sell advertising space in 50 newspapers across the country, marking a new venture for the Internet search giant that goes outside of the online world.

Lite-On IT, the largest Taiwan-based maker of optical disc drives (ODDs), has lowered its OEM/ODM prices for half-height (H/H) 16x DVD burners to $27-28, but some expected orders were shifted to Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology (TSST), the company's main competitor, because TSST offered prices as low as below $25, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

No, it's not a misprint: Microsoft today announced one of those if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em decisions and confirmed that it will be working closely with Novell to improve the interoperability and manageability between Windows and Linux. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will even recommend Suse Linux Enterprise for mixed OS environments.

Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment Corporation, a maker of tube manufacturing machines, is suing video-sharing giant YouTube because of its similarly sounding web name. Universal Tube's website, utube.com, has been knocked offline several times from people who misspelled youtube.com's website.

China's LCD TV market is poised for tremendous growth during the next four years, with a whopping 49% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) expected during the period from 2005 to 2010, according to research firm iSuppli.